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af

LETTERS

OF THE

HON. JOSEPH HOLT

THE

HON. EDWARD EYERETT,

AND

COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART,

ON THE

PRESENT CRISIS

mi

fy.

^>.»;:^-.^x

PHILADELPHIA :

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN,

No. 606 Chestnut Street.

1861.

LETTERS

OF THE

HON. JOSEPH HOLT,

THE

HON. EDAYAED EVERETT,

AND

COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART,

ON THE

PRESENT CRISIS

PHILADELPHIA:

WILLIAM S. k ALFRED MARTIEX,

No. GOG Chestnut Street.
18G1.

^ A

PREFATORY NOTE.

Mr. Holt is already well known to the country as the
Post-Master General, and subsequently, for a few weeks,
the Secretary of War under President Buchanan. The
ability and efficiency with which he administered these
trusts, commanded the general approval of the country;
while the personal and official corruption by which he was
surrounded, brought into bolder relief his own spotless
integrity. It was quite in keeping with the antecedents
of such a man, that he should write the Letter here re-
printed. He saw his native State dallying with the
demon of secession — as Satan beguiled our first mother.

" Oft he bowed
His turret-crest, and sleek enamelled neck,
Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod,"

This was not a sight for a true patriot to see unmoved;
and he addressed the following Letter to the "People of
Kentucky." The special design of the appeal, is to keep
that State from sliding into the abyss before her. But
in aiming at this object, he has discussed the whole sub-
ject of the pending contest with masterly ability. He
traces the secession movement to its true sources ; lays
bare the sordid motives of the Confederate leaders : and

4 PKEFATORY NOTE.

shows that the treason which is now makinfir war ap^ainst
our just and beneficent Government, has been covertly
plotting the overthrow of the Union for many years.

His views on these points are confirmed by the other
Letters hercAvith published. Mr. Everett states it, as
of his personal knowledge, that "leading Southern poli-
ticians had for thirty years been resolved to break up
the Union," whenever the sceptre departed from their
hands. And the venerable Commodore Stewart traces
the roots of this foul scheme back as far as 1812. These
testimonies, in connection with the recent letter of Mr.
Russell to the London Times^ seem to justify the pre-
sumption, that the State of South Carolina was never
loyal to the Union ; that, however it may have been with
the mass of her people, she had nursed ah initio a nest
of traitors, who have persistently cherished the purpose
to destroy the Government whenever they could no longer
control it.

These developments are of great moment in their bear-
ing upon the present conflict ; and they will not be lost
sight of in the future adjustment of this quarrel.

The three Letters contained in this pamphlet are of
too much value to be consigned merely to the fugitive
columns of a newspaper. The Publisher feels that he is
doing the country a good service, by presenting them in
a form suitable for preservation and reference. Without
specifying other topics which are worthy of notice, he
may be allowed to direct particular attention to the para-
graph of Mr. Everett's admirable Letter (pp. 38, 39) on
the plausible claim of the South, "simply to be let alone."

THiLADELrHiA, Junc 2o, 1861.

LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT,

Washington, Friday, May 31, 1861.

J. F. Speed, Esq.

My Dear iS^r— The recent over-whelming vote in
favour of the Union in Kentucky has afforded unspeaka-
ble gratification to all true men throughout the country.
That vote indicates that the people of that gallant State
have been neither seduced by the arts nor terrified by
the menaces of the revolutionists in their midst, and that
it is their fixed purpose to remain faithful to a Govern-
ment which, for nearly seventy years, has remained faith-
ful to them. Still it cannot be denied that there is in the
bosom of that State a band of agitators, who, though few
in number, are yet powerful from the public confidence
they have enjoyed, and who have been, and doubtless will
continue to be, unceasing in their endeavour to force
Kentucky to unite her fortunes with those of the rebel
Confederacy of the South. In view of this and of the
well-known fact that several of the seceded States have
by fraud and violence been driven to occupy their present
false and fatal position, I cannot, even with the encour-
agement of her late vote before me, look upon the

A*

6 LETTER OF THE HON J. HOLT

political future of our native State without a painful
solicitude. Never have the safety and honour of her
people required the exercise of so much vigilance and of
so much courage on their part. If true to themselves,
the Stars and Stripes, which, like angels' wings, have so
long guarded their homes from every oppression, will still
be theirs; but if, chasing the dreams of men's ambition,
they shall prove false, the blackness of darkness can but
faintly predict the gloom that awaits them. The Legisla-
ture, it seems, has determined by resolution that the
State, pending the present unhappy war, shall occupy
neutral ground. / must sai/, in all frankness, and with-
out desiring to reflect upon the course or sentiments of
any, that, in this struggle for the existence of our Govern-
ment, I can neither practise nor profess nor feel neutral-
ity. I tvould as soon think of being neutral in a contest
between an officer of justice and an incendiary arrested in
an attempt to fire the dtuelling over my head; for the
Government ivhose overthrow is sought, is for me the shelter
not only of home, kindred and friends, but of every earthly
blessing whicli I can hope to enjoy on this side of the grave.
If, however, from a natural horror of fratricidal strife, or
from her intimate social and business relations with the
South, Kentucky shall determine to maintain the neutral
attitude assumed for her by her Legislature, her position
will still be an honourable one, though falling far short of
that full measure of loyalty which her history has so con-
stantly illustrated. Her Executive, ignoring, as I am
happy to believe, alike the popular and legislative senti-
ment of the State, has, by proclamation, forbidden the
Government of the United States from marching troops
across her territory. This is in no sense a neutral step,

ON THE J'RESENT CKJ8IS. I

but one of aggressive hostility. The troops of the Federal
Government have as clear a constitutional right to pass
over the soil of Kentucky as they have to march along
the streets of Washington ; and could this prohibition be
effective, it would not only be a violation of the funda-
mental law, but would, in all its tendencies, be directly in
advancement of the revolution, and might, in an emer-
gency easily imagined, compromise the highest national
interests. I was rejoiced that the Legislature so promptly
refused to endorse this proclamation as expressive of the
true policy of the State. But I turn away from even
this to the ballot-box, and find an abounding consolation
in the conviction it inspires, that the popular heart of
Kentucky, in its devotion to the Union, is far in advance
alike of legislative resolve and of Executive proclamation.

But as it is well understood that the late popular
demonstration has rather scotched than killed rebellion
in Kentucky, I propose inquiring, as briefly as practica-
ble, whether, in the recent action or present declared
policy of the Administration, or in the history of the
pending revolution, or in the objects it seeks to accom-
plish, or in the results which must follow from it, if suc-
cessful, there can be discovered any reasons why that
State should sever the ties that unite her with a Confede-
racy in whose councils and upon whose battle-fields she
has won so much fame, and under whose protection she
has enjoyed so much prosperity.

For more than a month after the inauguration of Presi-
dent Lincoln, the manifestations seemed unequivocal
that his Administration would seek a peaceful solution of
our unhappy political troubles, and would look to time
and amendments to the Federal Constitution, adopted in

8 LETTKR OF THE HON. J. HOLT

accordance with its provisions, to bring back the revolted
States to their allegiance. So marked was the effect of
these manifestations in tranquilizing the Border States
and in reassuring their loyalty, that the conspirators who-
had set this revolution on foot took the alarm. WJiile
affecting to despise these States as not sufficient!?/ intensi-
fied in their devotion to African servitude, they Jcneiv they
could never succeed in their treasonable enterprise icithout
their support. Hence it ivas resolved to precipitate a
collision of arms ivith the Federal authorities, in the hope
that under the panic and exasperation incident to the
commencement of a civil war, the Border States, following
the natural bent of their sympathies, would array them-
selves against the Government. Fort Sumter, occupied
by a feeble garrison, and girdled by powerful if not
impregnable batteries, afforded convenient means for
accompli«hing their purpose, and for testing also their
favorite theory, that blood was needed to cement the new
Confederacy. Its provisions were exhausted, and the
request made by the President, in the interests of peace
and humanity, for the privilege of replenishing its stores,
had been refused. The Confederate authorities were
aware — for so the gallant commander of the fort had
declared to them — that in two days a capitulation from
starvation must take pUce. A peaceful surrender, how-
ever, would not have subserved their aims. They sought
the clash of arms and the effusion of blood as an instru-
mentality for impressing the Border States, and they
sought the humiliation of the Government and the dis-
honour of its flag as a means of giving prestige to their
own cause. The result is known. Without the slightest
provocation, a heavy cannonade was opened upon the

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 9

fort, and borne by its helpless garrison for hours without
reply; and when, in the progress of the bombardment,
the fortification became wrapped in flames, the besieging
batteries, in violation of the usages of civilized warfare,
instead of relaxing or suspending, redoubled their fires.
A more tvanton or wicked ivar was never commenced on
any G-overnment wliose history has been written. Cotem-
porary with and following the fall of Sumter, the siege
of Fort Pickens was and still is actively pressed; the
property of the United States Government continued to
be seized wherever found, and its troops, by fraud or
force, captured in the State of Texas, in violation of a
solemn compact with its authorities that they should be
permitted to embark without molestation. This was the
requital which the Lone Star State made to brave men,
who, through long years of peril and privation, had
guarded its frontiers against the incursions of the savages.
In the midst of the most active and extended warlike
preparations in the South, the announcement was made
by the Secretary of War of the seceded States, and
echoed with taunts and insolent bravadoes by the South-
ern press, that Washington City was to be invaded and
captured, and that the flag of the Confederate States
would soon float over the dome of its capitol. Soon
thereafter there followed an invitation to all the world —
embracing necessarily the outcasts and desperadoes of
every sea — to accept letters of marque and reprisal, to
prey upon the rich and unprotected commerce of the
United States.

In view of these events and threatenings, what was the
duty of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic? He might
have taken counsel of the revolutionists and trembled

10

LETTER or THE HON. J. HOLT

under their menaces; lie might, upon the fall of Sumter,
have directed that Fort Pickens should be surrendered
without firing a gun in its defence, and proceeding yet
further, and meeting fully the requirements of the "let
us alone" policy insisted on in the South, he might have
ordered that the Stars and Stripes should be laid in the
dust in the presence of every bit of rebel bunting that
might appear. But he did none of these things^ nor could
he have done them without forfeiting his oath and hetraij-
ing the most sublime trust that has ever been confided to
the hands of man. With a heroic fidelity to his consti-
tutional obligations, feeling justly that these obligations
charged him with the protection of the Republic and its
Capital against the assaults alike of foreign and domestic
enemies, he threw himself on the loyalty of the country for
support in the struggle upon which he was about to enter,
and nobly has that appeal been responded to. States
containing an aggregate population of nineteen millions
have ansAvered to the appeal as with the voice of one
man, offering soldiers without number, and treasure with-
out limitation for the service of the Government. In these
States, fifteen hundred thousand freemen cast their votes
in favour of candidates supporting the rights of the South,
at the last Presidential election, and yet everywhere,
alike in popular assembles and upon the tented field, this
million and a half of voters are found yielding to none in
the zeal with which they rally to their country's flag.
They are not less the friends of the South than before ;
but they realize that the question now presented is not
one of administrative policy, or of the claims of the North,
the South, the East, or the West; but is, simply, whether
nineteen millions of people shall tamely and ignobly per-

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS.

11

mit five or six millions to overtlirow and destroy institu-
tions which are the common property, and have been the
common blessings and glory of all. The great thorough-
fares of the North, the East, and the West, are luminous
with the banners and glistening with the bayonets of
citizen soldiers marching to the Capital, or to the other
points of rendevouz ; but they come in no hostile spirit to
tlie South. If called to press her soil, they will not ruffle
a flower of her gardens, nor a blade of grass of her fields
in unkindness. Wo excesses tuill mark the footsteps of the
armies af the Repuhlic ; no histitution of the States ivill
he invaded or tampered with, no rights of persons or of
joroperty ivill he violated. The knoim purposes of the
Administration, and the high character of the troops em-
ployed, alike guarantee the truthfulness of this statement.
AVhen an insurrection was apprehended a few weeks
since in Maryland, the Massachusetts' Regiment at once
offered their services to suppress it. These volunteers
have been denounced by the Press of the South as
''knaves and vagrants," "the dregs and offscourings of
the populace," who would "rather filch a handkerchief
than fight an enemy in manly combat;" yet we know
here that their discipline and bearing are most admirable,
and, I presume, it may be safely affirmed, that a larger
amount of social position, culture, fortune, and elevation
of character, has never been found in so large an army in
any age or country. If they go to the South, it ivill he
as friends and protectors, to relieve the Union sentiment
of the seceded States from the cruel domination hy tuhich
it is oppressed and silenced, to unfurl the Stars and
Stripes in the midst of those who long to look upon them,
and to restore the flag that hears them to the forts and

12 LETTER 01- THE HON. J. HOLT

arsenals from whicli disloyal hands have torn it. Their
mission tvill he one of peace, unless tvicJced and blood-
thirsty men shall unsheath the sword across their pathivay.

It is in vain for the revolutionists to exclaim that this
is ''' subjugation." It is so, jjrecisely in the sense in ivhich
you and I and all laiv-abiding citizens are subjugated.
The people of the South are our brethren, and while "\ve
obey the laws enacted by our joint authority, and keep a
compact to Avhich we all are parties, we only ask that
they shall be required to do the same. We believe that
their safety demands this; we know that ours does. We
impose no burden which we ourselves do not bear; we
claim no privilege or blessing which our brethren of the
South shall not equally share. Their country is our
country, and ours is theirs; and that unity both of
country and of government which the providence of God
and the compacts of men have created we could not our-
selves, without self immolation, destro}?", nor can we per-
mit it to be destroyed by others.

Equally vain is it for them to declare that they only
w^ish "to be let alone," and that, in establishing the in-
dependence of the seceded States, they do those which
remain in the old Confederacy no harm. The Free States,
if allowed the opportunity of doing so, will undoubtedly
concede every guarantee needed to afford complete pro-
tection to the institutions of the South, and to furnish
assurances of her perfect equality in the Union ; but all
such guarantees and assurances are now openly spurned,
and the only Southern right now insisted on is that of
dismembering the Republic. It is perfectly certain, that
in the attempted exercise of this right, neither States nor
statesmen will be " let alone." Should a ruffian meet me

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 18

in the streets, and seek, Avith his axe, to hew an arm and
a leg from my body, I would not the less resist him be-
cause, as a dishonoured and helpless trunk, I might per-
chance survive the mutilation. It is easy to perceive what
fatal results to the old Confederacy would follow, should
the blow now struck at its integrity ultimately triumph.
We can well understand what degradation it would bring
to it abroad, and what weakness at home ; what exhaus-
tion from incessant war and standing armies, and from
the erection of fortifications along the thousands of miles
of new frontiers ; what embarrassments to commerce from
having its natural channels encumbered or cut oft'; what
elements of disintregation and revolution would be intro-
duced from the pernicious example; and, above all, what
humiliation would cover the whole American people for
having failed in their great mission to demonstrate before
the world the capacity of our race for self-government.

While afar more fearful re^ponsihility has fallen upon
President Lincoln than upon any of his predecessors, if
must he admitted that he has met it with promptitude and
fearlessness. Cicero, in one of his orations against
Cataline, speaking of the credit due himself for having
suppressed the conspiracy of that arch-traitor, said, " If
the glory of him who founded Rome was great, how much
greater should be that of him who had saved it from over-
throw, after it had grown to be mistress of the world ?" So
may it be said of the glory of that statesman or chieftain
who shall snatch this Republic from the vortex of revolu-
tion, now that it has expanded from ocean to ocean, — has
become the admiration of the world, and has rendered the
fountains of the lives of thirty millions of people fountains
of happiness.

l-i LETTER OF THE HON. ^T. HOLT

The vigorous measures adopted for the safety of Wash-
ington, and the Government itself, may seem open to
criticism, in some of their details, to those who have yet
to learn that not only has war, like peace, its laws, but
that it has also its privileges and its duties. Whatever
of severity, or even of irregularity, may have arisen, will
find its justification in the pressure of the terrible neces-
sity under which the Administration has been called to
act. AVhen a man feels the poignard of the destroyer at
his bosom, he is not likely to consult tlie law-books as to
the mode or measure of his rights of self-defence. What
is true of individuals is in this respect equally true of
governments. The man who thinks he has become dis-
loyal because of lohat the Administration has done, loill
probably discover, after a close examination, that he was
disloyrd be-^ore. But for what has been done, Washington
might ere this have been a smouldering heap of ruins.

They have noted the course of public aff'airs to little
advantage who suppose that the election of Lincoln was
the real ground of the revolutionary outbreak that has
occurred. The roots of the revolution may be traced back
for more than a quarter of a century, and an unholy lust
for power is the soil out of which it sprang. A prominent
member of the band of agitators declared in one of his
speeches at Charleston, last November or December, that
they had been occupied for thirty years in the work of
severing South Carolina from the Union. When General
Jackson crushed nullification, he said it would revive
again under the form of the slavery agitation, and we have
lived to see his prediction verified. Indeed, that agita-
tion, during the last fifteen or twenty years, has been
almost the entire stock in trade of Southern politicians.

ON THE PRESENT CP.IiSlS. 15

The Southern people, known to be as generous in their
impulses as they are chivalric, were not wrought into a
frenzj of passion by the intemperate words of a few fana-
tical abolitionists ; for these words, if left to themselves,
would have fallen to the ground as pebbjes into the sea,
and would have been heard of no more. But it was the
echo of those words, repeated with exaggerations for the
thousandth time by Southern politicians, in the halls of
Congress, and in the deliberative and popular assemblies,
and through the Press of the South, that produced the
exasperation which has proved so potent a lever in the
hands of the conspirators. The cloud was fully charged,
and the juggling revolutionists who held the wires, and
could at will direct its lightnings, appeared at Charleston,
broke up the Democratic Convention assembled to nomi-
nate a candidate for the Presidency, and thus secured the
election of Mr. Lincoln. Having thus rendered this cer-
tain, they at once set to work to bring the popular mind
of the South to the point of determining in advance that
the election of a Republican President would be ijer se
cause for a dissolution of the Union. They were but too
successful, and to this result the inaction and indecision
of the Border States deplorably contributed. When the
election of Mr. Lincoln was announced, there was rejoic-
ing in the streets of Charleston, and doubtless at other
points in the South ; for it was believed by the conspira-
tors that this had brought a tide in the current of their
machinations which would bear them on to victory. The
drama of secession was now open, and State after State
rapidly rushed out of the Union, and their members with-
drew from Congress. The revolution was pressed on with
this hot haste in order that no time should be allowed for

16 LETTER OF THE HOX. J. HOLT

reaction in the Northern mind, or for any adjustment of
the Slavery issues by the action of Congress or of the
State Legislatures. Had the Southern members con-
tinued in their seats, a satisfactory compromise would, no
doubt, have been arranged and passed before the adjourn-
ment of Congress. As it was, after their retirement, and
after Congress had become Republican, an amendment to
the Constitution was adopted by a two-thirds vote, declar-
ing that Congress should never interfere with Slavery in
the States, and declaring, further, that this amendment
should be irrevocable. Thus we falsified the clamor so
long and so insidiously rung in the ears of the Southern
people, that the abolition of Slavery in the States was the
ultimate aim of the Republican party. But even this
amendment, and all others which may be needed to furnish
the guarantees demanded, are now defeated by the seces-
sion of eleven States, which, claiming to be out of the
Union, w411 refuse to vote upon, and, in effect, will vote
against, any proposals to modify the Federal Constitution.
There are now thirty-four States in the Confederacy,
three-fourths of which, being twenty-six, must concur in
the adoption of any amendment before it can become a
part of the Constitution; but the secession of eleven States
leaves but twenty-three whose vote can possibly be secured,
which is less than the constitutional number.

Thus we have the extraordinary and discreditable spec-
tacle of a revolution made by certain States professedly
on the ground that guarantees for the safety of their
institutions are denied them, and, at the same time, in-
stead of co-operating with their sister States in obtaining
these guarantees, they designedly assume a hostile atti-
tude, and thereby render it constitutionally impossible to

ON THE niESENT CRISIS.

secure them. This profound dissimulation shows that it
was not the safety of the South hut its severance from
the Confederacy, which was sought from the beginning.
Cotemporary with, and in some cases preceding, these
acts of secession, the greatest outrages were committed
upon the Government of the United States by the States
engaged in them. Its forts, arsenals, arms, barracks,
custom-houses, post-offices, moneys, and, indeed, every
species of its property within the limits of these States,
were seized and appropriated, down to the very hospital
stores for the sick soldiers. More than half a million of
dollars was plundered from the mint at New Orleans.
United States vessels were received from the defiled hands
of their officers in command, and, as if in the hope of
consecrating official treachery as one of the public virtues
of the age, the surrender of an entire military depart-
ment by a General, to the keeping of whose honour it
had been confided, was deemed worthy of the commenda-
tion and thanks of the Conventions of several States.
All these lawless proceedings were well understood to
have been prompted and directed by men occupying seats
in the Capitol, some of whom w^ere frank enough to de-
clare that they could not and would not, though in a
minority, live under a Government w^hich they could not
control. In this declaration is found the key which un-
locks the whole of the complicated machinery of this
revolution. The profligate ambition of public men in all
ages and lands has been the rock on which republics have
been split. Such men have arisen in our midst — men
who, because unable permanently to grasp the helm of
the ship, are willing to destroy it in the hope to command
some one of the rafts that may float away from the wreck.

B^

18 LFTTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT

The effect is to degrade us to a level with the military
bandits of Mexico and South America, who, "vvhen beaten
at an election, fly to arms, and seek to master by the
sword what they have been unable to control by the bal-
lot-box.

The atrocious acts enumerated were acts of war, and
might all have been treated as such by the late Adminis-
tration ; but the President patriotically cultivated peace —
how anxiously and how patiently the country well knows.
While, however, the revolutionary leaders greeted him
with all hails to his face, they did not the less diligently
continue to ivhet their swords behind his hack. Immense
military 'preparations were inade, so that when the mo-
ment for striking at the Government of the United States
arrived, the revolutionary States leaped into the contest
clad in full armour.

As if nothing should be wanting to darken this page of
history, the seceded States have already entered upon the
work of confiscating the debts due from their citizens to
the North and Northwest. The millions thus gained will
doubtless prove a pleasant substitute for those guarantees
now so scornfully rejected. To these confiscations will
probably succeed soon those of lands and negroes owned
by citizens of loyal States : and, indeed, the apprehen-
sion of this step is already sadly disturbing the fidelity
of non-resident proprietors. Fortunately, however, in-
firmity of faith, springing from such a cause, is not likely
to be contagious. The war bcgu7i is being prosecuted by
the Confederate States in a temper as fierce and unspar-
ing as that which characteynzes conflicts betiveen the most
hostile nations. Letters of marque and reprisal are being
granted to all who s^ek them, so that our coasts will soon

ON THE PRESENT CKISLS. 19

swarm with these piratical cruisers, as the President has
properly denounced them. Every buccaneer who desires
to rob American commerce upon the ocean, can, for the
asking, obtain a warrant to do so, in the name of the new
republic. To crown all, large bodies of Indians have
been mustered into the service of the revolutionary States,
and are now conspicuous in the ranks of the Southern
army. A leading North Carolina journal, noting their
stalwart frames and unerring markmanship, observes,
with an exultation positively fiendish, that they are armed,
not only with the rifle, but also with the scalping knife
and tomahawk.

Is Kentucky willing to link her name in history with
the excesses and crimes which have sullied this revolution
at every step of its progress? Can she soil her pure
hands with its booty ? She possesses the noblest heritage
that God has granted to his children ; is she prepared to
barter it away for that miserable mess of pottage which
the gratification of the unholy ambition of her public
men would bring to her lips? Can she, without laying
her face in the very dust for shame, become a participant
in the spoliation of the commerce of her neighbours and
friends, by contributing her star, hitherto so stainless in
its glory, to light the corsair on his way? Has the war-
whoop, which used to startle the sleep of our frontiers, so
died away in her ears that she is willing to take the red-
handed savage to her bosom as the champion of her rights
and the representative of her spirit? Must she not first
forget her own heroic sons who perished, butchered and
scalped, upon the disastrous field of Raisin ?

The object of the revolution, as avowed by all who are
pressing it forAvard, is the permanent dismemberment of the

20 LCTTEIl 0¥ THE IION. ,7. iiOi.T

Confederacj. The dream of reconstruction — used during
the last winter as a lure to draw the hesitating or the
hopeful into the movement — has been formally abandoned.
If Kentucky separates herself from the Union, it must
be upon the basis that the separation is to be final and
eternal. Is there aught in the organization or adminis-
tration of the Government of the United States to justify,
on her part, an act so solemn and so perilous? Could
the wisest of her lawyers, if called upon, find material
for an indictment in any or in all the pages of the history
of the Republic ? Could the most leprous-lipped of its
calumniators point to a single State or Territory, or com-
munity or citizen, that it has wronged or oppressed ? It
would be impossible. So fa?' as the Slave States arc
concerned, their protection has been complete, and if it
has not been, it has been the fault of their statesmen, who
have had the control of the Government since its founda-
tion.

The census returns show that during the year 18G0 the
Fugitive Slave Law was executed more faithfully and
successfully than it had been during the preceding ten
years. Since the installation of President Lincoln, not
a case has arisen in -wdiich the fugitive has not been re-
turned, and that, too, without any opposition from the
people. Indeed, the fidelity with which it was understood
to be the policy of the Administration to enforce the pro-
visions of this law, has caused a perfect panic among the
runaway slaves in the Free States, and they have been
escaping in multitudes to Canada, unpursued and unre-
claimed by their masters. Is there found in this, reason
for a dissolution of the Union?

That the Slave States are not recognized as equals in

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 21

the Confederacy, has for several years been tlie cry of
demagogues and conspirators. But what is the truth?
Not only according to the theory, but the actual practice
of the Government, the Slave States have ever been, and
still are, in all respects, the peers of the Free. Of the
fourteen Presidents who have been elected, seven were
citizens of Slave States, and of the seven remaining, three
represented Southern principles, and received the votes
of the Southern people; so that, in our whole history,
but four Presidents have been chosen who can be claimed
as the special champions of the policy and principles of
the Free States, and even these so only in a modified
sense. Does this look as if the South had ever been de-
prived of her equal share of the honours and powers of the
Government? The Supreme Court has decided that the
citizens of the Slave States can, at will, take their slaves
into all the Territories of the United States; and this
decision, which has never been resisted or interfered with
in a single case, is the law of the land, and the whole
power of the Government is pledged to enforce it. That
it will be loyally enforced by the present Administration
I entertain no doubt. A Republican Congress, at the
late session, organized three new Territories, and in the
organic law of neither was there introduced, or attempted
to be introduced, the slightest restriction upon the rights
of the Southern emigrant to bring his slaves with him.
At this moment, therefore, and I state it without qualifica-
tion, there is not a Territory belonging to the United
States into which the Southern people may not introduce
their slaves at pleasure, and enjoy there complete protec-
tion. Kentucky should consider this great and undeniable
fact, before which all the frothy rant of demagogues and

22 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT

disunionists must disappear as a bank of fog before the
v/ind. Eut were it otherwise, and did a defect exist in
our organic law, or in the practical administration of the
Government, in reference to the rights of Southern slave-
holders in the Territories, still the question would be a
mere abstraction, since the laws of climate forbid the
establishment of slavery in such a latitude ; and to destroy
such institutions as ours for such a cause, instead of
patiently trying to remove it, would be a little short of
national insanity. It would be to burn the house down
over our heads merely because there is a leak in the roof;
to scuttle the ship in mid-ocean merely because there is a
difference of opinion among the crew^ as to the point of
the com.pass to which the vessel should be steered; it
would be, in fact, to apply the knife to the throat instead
of to the cancer of the patient.

But what remains? Though, say the Disunionists, the
Fugitive Slave Law is honestly enforced, and though,
under the shelter of the Supreme Court, we can take our
slaves into the Territories, yet the Northern people will
persist in discussing the institution of Slavery, and there-
fore we will break up the Government. It is true that
Slavery has been very intemperately discussed in tlie
North, and it is equally true that until we have an Asiatic
despotism, crushing out all freedom of speech and of the
press, this discussion will probably continue. In this age
and country all institutions, human and divine, are dis-
cussed, and so they ought to be; and all that cannot bear
discussion must go to the wall, where they ought to go.
It is not pretended, however, that the discussion of
Slavery, which has been continued in our country for
more than forty years, has in any manner disturbed or

ON THE I'RESExXT CRISIS. 23

weakened tlie foundation of the institution. On tlie con-
trary, we learn from tlie press of the seceded States that
their slaves were never more tranquil or obedient. There
are zealots — happily few in number — both North and
South, whose language upon this question is alike ex-
travagant and alike deserving our condemnation. Those
wdio assert that Slavery should be extirpated by the
sword, and those who maintain that the great mission of
the white man upon earth is to enslave the black, are not
far apart in the folly and atrocity of their sentiments.

Before proceeding further, Kentucky should measure
well the depth of the gulf she is approaching, and look
well to the feet of her guides. Before forsaking a Union
in which her people have enjoyed such uninterrupted and
such boundless prosperity, she should ask herself, not
once, but many times. Why do I go, and where am I
going? In view of what has been said, it would be diffi-
cult to answer the first branch of the inquiry, but to
answer the second part is patent to all, as are the conse-
quences which would follow the movement. In giving
her great material and moral resources to the support of
the Southern Confederacy, Kentucky might prolong the
desolating struggle that rebellious States are making to
overthrow a Government v/hich they have only known in
its blessings ; but the triumph of the Government would
nevertheless be certain in the end. She 7V02iId abandon a
Government strong and able to j^^oteot her for one that is
tveak, and that contai7is, in the very elements of its life,
the seeds of distraction and early dissolution. She tvould
adopts as the laiv of her existence, the right of secession —
a right ivhich has no foundation in jurisprudence, or logic,
or in our political history ; vjhich Madison^ the father of

24 LETTER or THE HON. J. HOLT

the Federal Constitiction, denounced : tvMch has been de-
nounced by 7nost of the /States a7id prominent statesmen
now insisting upon its exercise; ivhich^ in introduciyig a
principle of indefinite disintegration, cuts up all confede-
rate governments by the roots, and gives them over a prey
to the caprices, and 2^<^issio7is, and transient interests of
their members, as autumnal leaves are given to the ivinds
which bloiv upon them. In 1814, the Richmond Enquirer,
then, as now, the organ of public opinion in the South,
pronounced secession to be treason, and nothing else, and
such -was then the doctrine of Southern statesmen. What
was true then is equally true now. The prevalence of
this pernicious heresy is mainly the fruit of that farce
called "State Rights," which demagogues have been so
long playing under tragic mask, and Avhich has done more
than all things else to unsettle the foundations of the
Republic, by estranging the people from the Federal
Government, as one to be distrusted and resisted, instead
of being, what it is, emphatically their own creation, at
all times obedient to their will, and in its ministrations
the grandest reflex of the greatness and beneficence of
popular power that has ever ennobled the history of our
race. Said Mr. Clay: "I owe a supreme allegiance to
the General Government, and to my State a subordinate
one." And this terse language disposes of the whole
controversy which has arisen out of the secession move-
ment in regard to the allegiance of the citizen. As the
power of the States and Federal Government are in
perfect harmony with each other, so there can be no con-
flict between the allegiance due to them; each, while
acting within the sphere of its constitutional authority, is
entitled to be obeyed; but when a State, throwing off all

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 26

constitutional restraints, seeks to destroy the General
Government, to say that its citizens are bound to follow
it in this career of crime, and discard the Supreme allegi-
ence they owe to the Government assailed, is one of the
shallowest and most dangerous fallacies that has ever
gained credence among men.

Kentucky, occupying a central position in the Union,
is now protected from the scourge of foreign war, however
much its ravages may waste the towns and cities upon our
coasts, or the commerce upon our seas; but as a member
of the Southern Confederacy, she would be a frontier
State, and necessarily the victim of those border feuds and
conflicts which have become proverbial in history alike for
their fierceness and frequency. The people of the South
now sleep quietly in their beds, while there is not a home
in infatuated and misguided Virginia that is not filled with
the alarms and oppressed by the terrors of war. In the
fate of the ancient Commonwealth, dragged to the altar
of sacrifice by those who should have stood between her
bosom and every foe, Kentucky may read her own.- lio
ivonder, therefore, that she has been so coaxingly besought to
unite her fortunes with those of the South, and to lag down
the bodies of her chivalric sons as a breastwork, behind
which the Southern people mag be sheltered. Even as
attached to the Southern Confederacy, she would be weak
for all the purposes of self-protection, as compared Avith
her present position. But amid the mutations incident to
such a helpless and disintegrating league, Kentucky would
probably soon find herself adhering to a mere fragment
of the Confederacy, or it may be standing entirely alone,
in the presence of tiers of Free States, with populations
exceeding, by many millions, her own. Feeble States,
c

2f) r/ETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT

thus separated from powerful and warlike neighbours by
ideal boundaries, or by fears as easily traversed as rivu-
lets, are as insects that feed upon the lion's lip — liable at
every moment to be crushed. The recorded doom of
multitudes of such, has left us a warning too solemn and
impressive to be disregarded.

Kentucky now scarcely feels the contribution she makes
to support the Government of the United States, but as a
member of the Southern Confederacy, of whose policy
free trade w^ill be a cardinal principle, she will be burdened
with direct taxation to the amount of double, or, it may
be, triple or quadruple that which she now pays into her
own treasury. Superadded to this will be required from
her her share of those vast outlays necessary for the
creation of a navy, the erection of forts and custom-
houses along a frontier of several thousand miles ; and for
the maintenance of that large standing army which will
be indispensable at once for her safety, and for imparting
to the new government that strong military character
Avhich, it has been openly avowed, the peculiar institu-
tions of the South will inexorably demand.

Kentucky now enjoys for her peculiar institution the
protection of the Fugitive Slave law, loyally enforced by
the Government, and it is this law, effective in its power
of recapture, but infinitely more potent in its moral
agency in preventing the escape of slaves, that alone
saves that institution in the Border States from utter
extinction. She cannot carry this law with her into the
new Confederacy. She will, virtually, have Canada
brought to her doors in the form of Free States, whose
population, relieved of all moral and constitutional obli-
gations to deliver up fugitive slaves, will stand, with open

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 27

arms, inviting and welcoming them, and defending them,
if need be, at the point of the bayonet. Under such
influences, slavery will perish rapidly away in Kentucky,
as a ball of snow would melt in a summer's sun.

Kentucky, in her soul, abhors the African slave-trade,
and turns away with unspeakable horror and loathing
from the red altars of King Dahomey. But altiiough this
traffic has been temporarili/ interdicted by the seceded
States, it is well understood that this step has been taken
as a mere measure of policy for the p>urp)ose of impressing
the Border States, and of conciliating the European
powers. The idtimate legalization of this trade, by a
Republic professing to he based upon African servitude,
must follow as certainly as does the conclusion from the
premises of a mathematical proposition. Is Kentucky
prepared to see the hand upon the dial-plate of her civili-
zation rudely thrust back a century, and to stand before
the world the confessed champion of the African Slave-
hunter? Is she, with her unsullied fame, ready to become
a pander to the rapacity of the African Slave-trader, who
burdens the very winds of the sea with the moans of the
wretched captives whose limbs he has loaded with chains,
and whose hearts he has broken? I do not, I cannot,
believe it.

For this catalogue of what Kentucky must suffer in
abandoning her present honoured and secure position,
and becoming a member of the Southern Confederacy,
what will be her indemnity? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
The ill-woveji ambition of some of her sons may possibly
reach the Presidency of the new Republic; that is all.
Alas ! alas ! for that dream of the Presidency of a South-

28 LETTER UE THE llON. J. UOLT

ern Republic, which has disturbed so many pillows in the
South, and perhaps some in the West, also, and whose
lurid light, like a demon's torch, is leading a nation to
perdition !

The clamour that in insisting upon the South obeying
the laws, the great principle that all popular governments
rest upon the consent of the governed is violated, should
not receive a moment's considei'ation. Popular govern-
ment does, indeed, rest upon the consent of the governed,
but it is upon the consent, not of all, hut of a majority of
the governed. Criminals are every day punished, and
made to obey the laws, certainly against their will, and
no man supposes that the principle referred to is thereby
invaded. A bill passed by the Legislature, by the
majority of a single vote only, though the constituents of
all who voted against it, should be in fact, as they are
held to be in theory, opposed to its provisions, still is not
the less operative as a law, and no right of self-govern-
ment is thereby trampled upon. The clamour alluded to
assumes that the States are separate and independent
governments, and that laws enacted under the authority
of all may be resisted and repealed at the pleasure of
each. The people of the United States, so far as the
powers of the General Government are concerned, are a
unit, and laws passed by a majority of all are binding
upon all. The laws and Constitution, however, which the
South now resists, have been adopted by her sanction,
and the right she now claims is that of a feeble minority
to repeal what a majority has adopted. Nothing could
be more fallacious.

Civil war, under all circumstances, is a terrible

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 29

calamity, and yet, from the selfish ambition and wicked-
ness of men, the best governments have not been able to
escape it. In regarding that which has been forced upon
the Government of the United States, Kentucky should
not look so much at the means Avhich may be necessarily
employed in its prosecution, as at the machinations by
which this national tragedy has been brought upon us.
When I look upon this bright land, a few^ months since so
prosperous, so tranquil, and so free, and now behold it
desolated by w^ar, and the firesides of its thirty millions
of people darkened, and their bosoms wrung with anguish,
and know, as I do, that all this is the work of a score or
two of men, who, over all this national ruin and despair,
are preparing to carve with the sword their way to seats
of permanent power, I cannot but feel that they are
accumulating upon their soil an amount of guilt hardly
equalled in all the atrocities of treason and of homicide
that have degraded the annals of our race from the
foundations of the world. Kentucky may rest luell assured
that this conflict^ tvhich is one of self-defence, will he pur-
sued on the part of the Government in the paternal spirit
in ivhich a father seeks to reclaim his erring offspring.
No conquest, no effusion of blood is sought. In sorrow,
not in anger, the prayer of all is, that the end may he
reached tvithout loss of life or ivaste of property. Among
the most powerful instrumentalities relied on for re-estab-
lishing the authority of the Government, is that of the
Union sentiment of the South, sustained by a liberated
press. It is now trodden to the earth under a reign or
terrorism which has no parallel but in the worst days of
the French Revolution. The presence of the Govern-
ed

30 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT

ment will enable it to rebound and look its oppressors In
the face. At present we are assured that in the seceded
States no man expresses an opinion opposed to the revo-
lution but at the hazard of his life and property. The
only light which is admitted into political discussion is
that which flashes from the sword or gleams from glisten-
ing bayonets. A few days since, one of the United
States Senators from Virginia published a manifesto, in
which he announces, with oracular solemnity and severity,
that all citizens who would not vote for secession, but
were in favour of the Union — not, should, or ought to —
but "must leave the State." These words have in them
decidedly the crack of the overseer's whip. The Senator
evidently treats Virginia as a great negro quarter, in
which the lash is the appropriate emblem of authority,
and the only argument he will condescend to use. How-
ever the freemen of other parts of the State may abase
themselves under the exercise of this insolent and pro-
scriptive tyranny, should the Senator, with his scourge of
slaves, endeavour to drive the people of Western Virginia
from their homes, I will only say, in the language of the
narrative of Gilpin's ride,

"May I be there to see!"

It would certainly prove a deeply interesting spectacle.

It is true that before this deliverance of the popular
mind of the South from the threatenings and alarm which
have subdued it can be accomplished, the remorseless
agitators who have made this revolution, and now hold its
reins, must be discarded alike from the public confidence
and the public service. The country in its agony is feel-

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 31

ing their power, and we well understand how difficult will
^be the task of overthrowing the ascendancy they have
secured. But the Union men of the South — believed to
be in the majority in every seceded State, except, perhaps,
South Carolina — aided by the presence of the Govern-
ment, will be fully equal to the emergency. Let these
agitators perish, politically, if need be, by scores,

"A breath can unmake them as a breath has made;"

but destroy this Republic, and

"Where is that Promethean heat
That can its light relume?"

Once entombed, when will the Angel of the Resurrec-
tion descend to the portals of its sepulchre ? There is
not a voice which comes to us from the cemetery of nations
that does not answer: "Never, never !" Amid the tor-
ments of perturbed existence, we may have glimpses of
rest and of freedom, as the maniac has glimpses of reason
between the paroxysms of his madness, but we shall attain
to neither national dignity nor national repose. We
shall be a mass of jarring, warring, fragmentary States,
enfeebled and demoralized, without power at home, or
respectability abroad, and, like the republics of Mexico
and South America, we will drift away on a shoreless and
ensanguined sea of civil commotion, from which, if the
teachings of history are to be trusted, we shall finally be
rescued by the iron hand of some military wrecker, who
will coin the shattered elements of our greatness and of
our strength in a diadem and a throne. Said M. Fould,
the great French statesman, to an American citizen, a
few weeks since : " Your Republic is dead, and it is pro-

32 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT

bably the last the Avorld will ever see. You will have a
reign of terrorism, and after that two or three monarchies."
All this may be verified, should this revolution succeed.

Let us then twine each thread of the glorious tissue of
our country's flag about our heart-strings, and looking
upon our homes and catching the spirit that breathes upon
us from the battle-fields of our fathers, let us resolve,
that come weal or woe, we will in life and in death, now
and for ever, stand by the Stars and the Stripes. They
have floated over our cradles, let it be our prayer and our
struggle that they shall float over our graves. They have
been unfurled from the snows of Canada to the plains of
New Orleans, and to the halls of the Montezumas, and
amid the solitudes of every sea; and everywhere, as the
luminous symbol of resistless and beneficent power, they
have led the brave and the free to victory and to glory.
It has been my fortune to look upon this flag in foreign
lands and amid the gloom of an oriental despotism, and
right well do I know, by contrast, how bright are its stars,
and how sublime are its inspirations ! If this banner,
the emblem for us of all that is grand in human history,
and of all that is transporting in human hope, is to be
sacrificed on the altars of a Satanic ambition, and thus
disappear for ever amid the night and tempest of revolu-
tion, then will I feel — and who shall estimate the desola-
tion of that feeling ? — that the sun has indeed been
stricken from the sky of our lives, and that henceforth we
shall be but wanderers and outcasts, with nought but the
bread of sorrow and of penury for our lips, and with
hands ever outstretched in feebleness and supplication, on
which, in any hour, a military tyrant may rivet the fet-
ters of a despairing bondage. May God in his infinite

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 33

mercy save you and me, and the land we so much love,
from the doom of such a degradation.

No contest so momentous as this has arisen in human
history, for, amid all the conflicts of men and of nations,
the life of no such government as ours has ever been at
stake. Our fathers won our Independence by the blood
and sacrifices of a seven years' war, and w^e have main-
tained it against the assaults of the greatest Power upon
the earth ; and the question now is, whether we are to
perish by our own hands, and have the epitaph of suicide
written upon our tomb ? The ordeal through which we
are passing must involve immense suffering and losses for
us all, but the expenditure of not merely hundreds of mil-
lions, but of billions of treasure, will be well made, if the
result shall be the preservation of our institutions.

Could my voice reach every dwelling in Kentucky, I
would implore its inmates — if they would not have the
rivers of their prosperity shrink away, as do unfed streams
beneath the summer heats — to rouse themselves from their
lethargy, and fly to the rescue of their country, before it
is everlastingly too late. Man should appeal to man, and
neighbourhood to neighbourhood, until the electric fires of
patriotism shall flash from heart to heart in one unbroken
current throughout the land. It is a time in which the
work-shop, the office, the counting-house, and the field,
may well be abandoned for the solemn duty that is upon
us, for all these toils will but bring treasure, not for our-
selves, but for the spoiler, if this revolution is not ar-
rested.

We are all, ivitli our every eartlihj interest, embarked in
mid ocean on the same common deck. The hotul of the
storm is in our ears, and ''''the lightning's red glare is

34 LETTER OF THE HON. J. HOLT.

painting hell on the shj ;'' and wliile the noble ship 2^ it dies
and rolls under the lashings of the ivaves^ the cry is heard
that she has sprung a leak at 7nany points^ and that the
rushing ivaters are 7nounting rapidly in the hold. The
man who., in such an hour., ivill 7iot tvork at the puynps^ is
either a maniac or a monster.

Sincerely yours,

JOSEPH HOLT.

LETTER FROM HON. EDWARD EVERETT.

The following private letter was written, without any
thought of publication, to a correspondent in Virginia.

Boston, May 15, 1861.

My Dear Mr. .

Your letter of the 9th reached me yesterday. I
read it with mingled feelings ; gratified that your friendly
regard had as yet survived the shock of the times, and
deeply grieved at the different view we take of the exist-
ing crisis.

It is well known to you that I sustained the South, at
the almost total sacrifice of influence and favour at home,
as long as I thought she was pursuing constitutional
objects. This I did, although the South had placed the
conservative North in a false and indefensible position,
by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the perse-
vering attempts to force slavery into the Territory of
Kansas, by surprise, fraud and violence, against the
known wish of an overwhelming majority of the people.
I pursued this course for the sake of strengthening the
hands of patriotic Union men at the South; altliougli I
tvas well aware, partly from facts ivithin my personal
knowledge, that leading Southern politicians had for
thirty years been resolved to break up the Union, as soon

3G LETTER OF IIOxN. EDWARD EVERETT

as they ceased to control the United States Government^
and that the slavery question was but a pretext for keep-
ing up agitation and rallying the South.

Notwithstanding this state of things, and the wholly
unwarrantable manner in which the policy of secession
was initiated by South Carolina and followed up by the
other cotton States, and in spite of the seizure of the
public establishments and the public property — which,
in the absence of any joint act of partition, was sheer
plunder — it was my opinion that, if they would abstain
from further aggression, and were determined to separate,
we had better part in peace. But the wanton attack on
Fort Sumter (which took place, not from any military
necessity, for what harm was a single company, cooped
up in Charleston harbour, able to do to South Carolina?
but for the avowed purpose of ^'stirring the blood" of
the South, and thus bringing in the border States), and
the subsequent proceedings at Montgomery, have wholly
changed the state of affairs. The South has levied an
unprovoked war against the Government of the United
States, the mildest and most beneficent in the world, and
has made it the duty of every good citizen to rally to its
support.

I perceive that my having publicly expressed that
sentiment, and contributed my mite toward the regiment
of Mr. Webster (who inherits the conservative opinions
of his illustrious father), has caused surprise on the part
of some of my Southern friends — yourself among the most
valued of them — as if my so doing was inconsistent with
the friendly feelings I have ever cherished toward the
South. But these friends forget that as early as the

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS. 37

12th of April, that is, before the proclamation of Presi-
dent Lincoln, the Secretary of War at Montgomery had
threatened that by the 1st of May, the Confederate flag
should float over the Capitol at Washington, and in due
time our Faneuil Hall. When General Beauregard pro-
ceeds to execute this threat, his red-hot cannon balls and
shells will not spare the roof that shelters my daughter
and four little children at Washington, nor my own roof
in Boston. Must I, because I have been the steady friend
of the South, sit still while he is battering my house about
my ears?

I certainly deprecated the choice of a President exclu-
sively by the electoral vote of one section of the country,
though consenting with the greatest reluctance to be
myself upon one of the opposing tickets. It was, how-
ever, fully in the power of the South to have produced a
different result. But the disunioiiists were determined
to have their own candidate^ though mistaken^ I trust, in^
the belief that he shared their disloyal views. 1 make
this charge against them without scruple, justified hy
subsequent events, as well as by the language of the
entire Union press at the South during the canvass.

After the election was decided, the disunionists would
not wait for ovei^t acts, because they knew none could or
would be committed. They knew that there was an anti-
Eepublican majority in the Senate, and that there would
be one in the present House. They ''^precipitated'' the
rupture of the Union, because they knew that if they
ivaited, even the pretext for it would fail.

After the cotton States had seceded, and although that
circumstance greatly increased the difficulty of corapro-

D

38 LETTER OF HON. EDWARD EVERETT

mise, measures were nevertheless adopted or proposed in
Congress, which must have removed all sincere alarm on
the part of the South, that their Constitutional rights
were threatened. The accredited leaders of the Repub-
lican party, including the President elect, uniformly
pledged themselves to that effect. The two Houses by a
constitutional majority pledged them in like manner
against any future amendment of the Constitution vio-
lating the rights of the South. A member from Massa-
chusetts, (Mr. Adams,) possessing the entire confidence
of the incoming Administration, proposed to admit New
Mexico as a State, and three new Territories were organ-
ized without any anti-slavery restriction. While this was
done in Congress, the States repealed or modified the
laws throwing obstacles in the way of recovering fugitive
slaves — laws which have never been of any practical
injury to the cotton States. These conciliatory demon-
strations had no effect in staying the progress of
secession, because the leaders of that revolution were
determined not to he satisfied, and to maintain their
policy, which, in the light of the Constitution, is simple
rebellion and treason, they have appealed to the sword.

You say that the South desires nothing but peace, and
ask whether the North will not "let you alone." But,
my good friend, the South demands a great deal more
than "peace." She claims the capital of the country,
although she has but a third of its population. She
claims the control of the outlet of Chesapeake Bay and
its tributaries; the right to command the most direct
route (the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) to the Atlantic
from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois — States whose popu-

ON THE PRESENT CRISIS.

39

lation amounts to five and a half millions; tlie right to
dragoon the State of Maryland and the Western part of
your own State, with Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee,
into joining the Southern Confederacy; the right to
occupy the fortresses which protect the trade of the Gulf
of Mexico ; the right to shut up the outlet of the Ohio,
Mississippi, and the Missouri; and, finally, she claims
the right for any State, that chooses to pass a law to that
effect, to break up the Union. In enforcing these uncon-
stitutional, monstrous, and unheard of usurpations, she
asks to be "let alone;" and when the Government of the
United States, in obedience to the solemn oaths of its
members, (from which the leaders of the revolt dispense
themselves,) takes measures to defend itself, the capital
of the Union, the public establishments and the rights of
the whole people against this invasion, long premeditated
by ambitious and disappointed politicians, (for Mr. A. H.
Stephens truly declares that to be "the source of a great
part of our troubles,") she exclaims that the North seeks
to "subjugate the South."

I cannot describe to you, my dear friend, the sorrow
caused me by this state of things. Circumstances, as
you well knew, had led me to form personal friendly
relations at the South, more extensively than most North-
ern men, and the support given, especially in the Border
States, to the ticket on which my name was borne at the
late election, filled me with gratitude. If the sacrifice of
all I have, could have averted the present disastrous
struggle, I could have made it willingly, joyously. But
I pray you, believe me that I speak not only my own con-
viction, but that of the entire North, when I say that we

40 LETTER OF THE HON. EDWARD EVERETT.

feel that the conflict has been forced upon us, to gratify
the aspirations of ambitious men ; that it is our duty to
ourselves, to our children, and to the whole people, to
sustain the Government; and that it is, if possible, more
the interest of the South than of the North, that this
attempt to break up the Union should fail.

I remain, my dear Mr. ,

Sorrowfully and sincerely yours,

EDWARD EVERETT.

LETTER FROM COMMODORE STEWART.

BoRDENTowN, May, 4, 18G1.

My Dear Sir :

Agreeably to your request I now furnish you with
the reminiscences of a conversation which passed between
Mr. John C. Calhoun and myself, in the latter part of
December, 1812, after the declaration of war by the
Congress of the United States against Great Britain, on
the 18th of June previous.

On the assembling of Congress, in the early part of
December, I found that an important portion of the lead-
ing Democratic members of Congress had taken up their
quarters at Mrs. Bushby's boarding-house; amongst whom
was Mr. Calhoun — a new member from South Carolina —
and I believe this was his first appearance in the House
of Representatives. In consequence of this I took Lieu-
tenant Ridgley, my confidential officer and the first Lieu-
tenant of the frigate Constellation, of which vessel I then
held the command, and was preparing for sea at the
Washington navy yard — left our lodgings at Strothers'
and obtained board at Mrs. Bushby's with them. Ridgley
was a witty and able talker, who could aid me in demon-
strating the necessity for, and the high policy of, a for-
midable naval force, wherewith to carry on the war with

42 LETTER or COMMODORE STEWART

England, which I considered could only be done with
effect through her being victoriously struck at on an ele-
ment over which she deemed herself sole mistress. This
appeared to me to constitute her most tender point.

By this movement I found myself judiciously located
to enable me to urge upon Congress any patriotic measures
which seemed best calculated to meet and discomfit the
self-sufficiency and arrogance of our oppressive enemy.

Mr. Calhoun's age, I thought, approximated my own,
which was then thirty-four, and he being a man of the
highest order of talent, and representing a State in our
Union which scarce ever permitted themselves to be repre-
sented by inferior ability in the national councils, I could
not have commenced my object with one more fitted for
the purpose I had in view. He was also a high-minded
and honourable man, kind and friendly, as well as open
and confiding to those he deemed worthy. We soon
formed an intimacy, and I frequently had long conversa-
tions with him on the war, the subjects relating thereto,
and matters growing out of its existence — the navy being
the most prominent — the gunboats, the merchants, bonds,
then on the tapis in Congress, and others of political or
minor interest. One evening I struck on the divided
views of our sectional interests — of the war — stated to
him that the opposite feelings on this subject had puzzled
me exceedingly, and asked him how it was that the plant-
ing States were so strongly and so decidedly in favour of
the war, while the commercial States were so much op-
posed to it ? With this latter section of our country it
seemed to me that the punishment of England, through
the medium of war, ought to meet their highest approba-
tion, and call for their greatest efforts, as they were the

ON THE niESENT CRISIS. 43

greatest sufferers through her instrumentality and power
over our commercial affairs since 1792, which were so
arrogantly urged by plunder and impressment on the
highway of. nations, while the Southern portion of the
Union had felt but little in comparison. I observed with
great simplicity: "You in the South and Southwest are
decidedly the aristocratic portion of this Union; you are
so in holding persons in perpetuity in slavery ; you are so
in every domestic quality ; so in every habit of your lives,
living and actions ; so in habits, customs, intercourse and
manners; you neither work with your hands, head, nor
any machinery, but live and have your living not in accord-
ance with the will of your Creator, but by the sweat of
slavery, and yet you assume all the attributes, professions
and advantages of Democracy." Mr. Calhoun replied :
"I see you speak through the head of a young statesman,
and from the heart of a patriot, but you lose sight of the
politician and the sectional policy of the people. I admit
your conclusions in respect to us Southrons; that we are
essentially aristocratic, I cannot deny, but we can and do
yield much to Democracy. This is our sectional policy ;
we are from necessity throw^n upon, and solemnly wedded
to, that party, however it may occasionally clash with our
feelings, for the conservator of our interests. It is
through our affiliation with that party in the Middle and
Western States we control, under the Constitution, the
governing of these United States ; but when we cease thus
to control this nation through a disjointed Democracy, or
any material obstacle in that party which shall tend to
throw us out of that rule and control, we shall then resort
to the dissolution of the Union. The compromises in the
Constitution, under the then circumstances, w^ere sufficient

44 LETTER OF COINIMODORE STEWART

for our fathers, but under the altered condition of our
country from that period, leave to the South no resource
but dissolution; for no amendments to the Constitution
could be reached through a Convention of thQ people and
their three-fourths rule." I laughed incredulously, and
said: ''Well, Mr. Calhoun, ere such can take place you
and I will have been so long non est that we can now
laugh at its possibility, and leave it with complacency to
our children's children, who will then have the watch on
deck."

Alas ! my dear sir, how entirely were the views of that
"young headed statesman" circumscribed by the patriotic
feelings of his heart. What he then thought an impossi-
bility for human hands to effect, for ages on ages to come,
he now sees verified to the letter, as predicted by that far-
seeing statesman, John C. Calhoun. Even this noble
Republic is disrupted, its Constitution rent into shreds and
tatters by party follies and the wickedness of its people's
selfishness. Had they but inherited a moiety of the vir-
tues of their fathers, who bled and impoverished them-
selves through a long and bloody war to establish the
independence and liberty, welfare and happiness of their
posterity for all time to come ; had they worshipped the
true and living God, instead of the "almighty dollar,"
they would not now have beheld the millions of patriots
arming for the strife, against traitors to their country, to
the Constitution and the laws, once more to baptize in
blood, for liberty's sake, the blessings which rational
liberty accords under our Union. . Had a prophet arisen
in 1812, and predicted as John C. Calhoun did, nothing
short of Divine inspiration could have given credence to
his foreshadowincrs. Alas 1 I have lived to see its accom-

ON THE PKSSENT CRISIS. 45

plishment. He has gone to the tomb of his fathers, the
pride of his section, honoured for his talents and for his
efforts in council, while your humble servant still lingers
on the brink, under the national anathema of degradation
— as a reward for many years of faithful services — which
degradation was accorded him simultaneously with his
reaching the head of the service to which his whole life
had been devoted. You will see, my dear sir, I have no
disposition to "bury my light under a bushel," but will
ever be ready to accord justice w^hen justice is due. Thus
in death we show the ruling passion stronger than in life;
and as it is ^\iih individuals so it is with nations, the
blackest spot found in the heart is ingratitude.
Accept my assurances of regard and respect.

CHARLES STEWART.
Geo. W. Childs, Esq., Philad.

PAMPHLETS ON THE CRISIS.

The Causes of the American Civil "War. A Letter to
the London Tunm. By John Lothrop Motley, LL.D.,
author of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic." Price 10 cts.
Per dozen §1.00.

Letters of the Hon. Joseph Holt, the Hon. Edward
Everett, and Commodore Charles Stewart, on the
Present Crisis. Price 15 cts., or eight copies for $1.00.

The Scripture Doctrine of Civil Government applied
to the Present Crisis. A Discourse delivered in the
Westminster Presbyterian Church. By the Rev. Robert
Watts. Price 10 cts. Per dozen $1.00.

American Patriotism. A Sermon. By the Rev. Charles
AVadsworth^ D.D. Price 15 cts.

The Christian Soldier. A Sermon. By the Rev. Charles
Wadsworthj D.D. Price 15 cts.

The State of the Country. Reprinted from the Princeton
RevieiD. By Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D. Price 6 cts.

A second Article from the Princeton Revieiv. By Rev. Dr.
Hodge. Price 75 cts.

Our Country; its Perils and its Deliverance. By Rev.
Robt. J. Breckinridge, D.D. Price 15 cts., or eight copies
for $1.00.

Danville Quarterly Revieav for June. Containing a
Second Article from Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge on
the Crisis. Price 75 cts.

The Rebellion Record; a Diary of the Southern Conspiracy
and War against the United States. To be published
monthly. Part I. With a portrait of Gen. Scott and a fine
Map. Price 50 cts.

Part II. Rebellion Record. Containing Portraits of Fre-
mont, Ellsworth^ and Jeff. Davis. Price 50 cts.

Any of the above sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the
price.

For sale by

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN,
GOG Chestnut Street^ Philadelphia.

MAPS OF THE SEAT OF WAR.

I.

000 Miles Around the City of Wasihington, showing the
Seat of War in the East, with list of Forts, Military Stations,
Table of Population, Areas, etc , and an enlarged Military
Map of the country between New York, Washington, and
Wheeling — the scene of the present active military operations.

One large sheet, 33 by 23 inches. Price, in sheets^ coloured,
25 cts.; in neat pocket cases, 38 cts.

11.

«>00 Miles arowid Cairo, showing the iSeat of War in the
West, with list of Forts and Military Stations, Distances on
Rivers to and from Cairo, etc., and a detailed Map of the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers, showing every steamboat landing.

One large sheet, 33 by 23 inches. Price, in sheets, coloured,
25 cts. ; in neat pocket cases, 38 cts.

These sheets are the largest and cheapest, the most reliable
in information and beautiful in execution, that have yet been
issued, and are prepared on an entirely novel plan.

III.

3/c/p of the United States and Territories east of the Ptocky
Mountains, showing the Military Posts, Ports of Entry, &c.
With an enlarged View of the Seat of War, the Coast of South
Carolina, and of Fort Pickens, and the Shores of the Gulf of
Mexico. Price, coloured, 50 cts.

lY.

Bird's-Fi/e Yieio of Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and the
District of Columbia. Size, 30 by 36 inches. Price, $1 00.

This is a most carefully and beautifully prepared Map, con-
veying, at a glance, a correct and comprehensive view of all the
leading points of interest, blockading fleets, &c.

For sale by

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN,
GOG Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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